Padres360 includes honoring our past, encouraging our future, and supporting our team. Throwback Thursdays are devoted to honoring our past. We are very honored to share this about Walt Hriniak.
Walt Hriniak is famous for being a hitting coach. He started working with Red Sox hitters in the 70’s and worked with young Red Sox hitters like Dwight Evans, Fred Lynn and Jim Rice. In 1985, Walt moved on to the Chicago White Sox after the death of Charlie Lau and worked with future Hall Of Fame 1B Frank Thomas. Did you know he was also a former Padres player? He played with San Diego Padres in their expansion year of 1969 and finished his major league career here in 1970. Here are a couple questions he took the time to answer for us.
We wrote to Walt and here are the responses that he provided:
Padres360 – Who was your favorite player on the Padres when you played on the club?
Walt – My favorite teammate was Cito Gaston. We were really good friends and are still. He is truly a great person.
Padres360 – What advice would you have for players coming up through the minors today?
Walt – Take care of yourself, try to be the best you can be and never give up.
We hope you enjoyed hearing a bit from Walt
I attended Walt’s Dad’s youth baseball camp in Connecticut…The Hall of Fame Baseball Camp. I attended the year Walt was traded to San Diego. I remember his Dad speaking of it. His Dad’s name was Walt also.
That is awesome, Richard! Thanks so much for sharing that with us.
Butchie Hriniak was my next door neighbor on Barnesdale Road in Natick MA from 1955 to 1960. Almost every day Butch would ask me to pitch to him with a hard rubber ball. He stood in a corner between two adjoining walls at the Brown School at the end of our street. He had chalked a baseball plate on the school wall and I would fire that ball at that target for hours as he took his cuts. I was two years younger than Butch, which means he was about 15 and I was 13. I was Butchie’s first hitting coach. Would love to hear from him again.
David Colman